Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13

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Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13.3″ Core i5 / Nvidia 940MX Review

Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13.3″ Core i5 / Nvidia 940MX Review

The larger and more powerful Mi Notebook Air 13 has just recently been reviewed. The 13.3″ Notebook features the same premium build as the 12.5″ model. But instead of s fanless Core M3-6Y30 it’s powered by an Intel Core i5 6200U, 8GB of 2133Mhz DDR4 RAM, dedicated Nvidia 940MX 1GB GPU and 256GB NVMe Samsung SSD. So a big step up in power and in my testing it can even play GTA V with frame rates around the 35- 45fps make at 1080p which is something I didn’t expect the Nvidia 940MX to be capable of.

It has two fans inside and when you’re not doing anything demanding the notebook will be silent with the fans on low speed or even off if temperatures permit. But once you encode or game on it the fans will ramp up and make themselves know. It’s not the loudest notebook. But due to its 14mm thickness they do have to move a lot of air to keep the hardware cool. That’s covered in the review as well as maximum temperatures which can reach around 83 degrees C. A written review is being worked on now with more details coming asap. I got this unit from Gearbest here. It’s $649 with coupon Air13L

And for you gamers, yes it can play a few games on the side as shown. Most games will run best at 1280 x 720p:

Video tech reviewer and tech blogger. I have a huge interest in the latest tech, tablets, laptops, mobiles, drones, and even e-scooters. Active in the tech community since 2008 days of the Omnia i900 Windows phone. Samsungi8910omnia.com, Samsunggalaxysforums.com founder from way back.

20 Comments

  1. Damn’ Aint gonna use my Intel p600 NVM PCI x4 card, that was some of the reason for purchasing
    this ultrabook, since the OEM card its shipping with in my batch is way faster then ewen Intel p600 256gb cards tha i have laying aroud and was annoyed not to be able to use, but that retail intel 256gbcard is ewen slower then the 256gd OEM drive there in mine Mi air 13 batch. (certainly didnt expectd that, all the reviews-video shows speed around 350mb/s in write..
    just got mine yesterday and its single language China, so my screendump from taskmanager doesnt make much sense, but you can sense the modelnames on NVM OEM samsung drive. (pasted some test in

    crystalmark and geek4)
    http://i.imgur.com/EIrEHDo.png
    (sorry if this message is double pasted, doesnt seem to go thrue)

    • +1800mb/s read and +1300mb/s write on OEM’ socalled PM’drive, certainly not to shabby on an el cheapo 600USD ultrabook with dGPU packed with DDR5.

      also impressed with the screen 1300/1 contrast and 96% sRGB, and solid looking samsung panel there are in this ultrabook. (ewen thow the flickering there are indication becomes in play under 30% brightness can be an annoyance.
      http://i.imgur.com/OMtdo12.jpg

      also quite massive the difference between dGPU 940M on DDR3 versus 940MX DDR5.
      http://i.imgur.com/kcRnJFI.png

      here are some benchstats how the Mi Air hold up again the 3000′ euro high end edition Surface book in 3dmark , the high end spec surface i7 book was from 2Q 2016 while the Mi Air from 3Q 2016.
      http://i.imgur.com/sc60kCK.png

      lot of valid testinfo for Mi air 13 owners, and quite impressiv how it stacks up mid summer 2016 peloton. (ewnw thow there unit where also with lacking drive, with read at 1200mb/s and write around 300mb/s and there drive-scores where also from crystalmark5, so quite a difference to 1800mb / 1300mb. there are in play in mine version.
      https://www.notebookcheck.net/Xiaomi-Mi-Air-13-3-inch-Notebook-Review.180561.0.html

  2. The Xiaomi mi notebook air 13 is getting annoying fan noise. It’s rattling noise on the right side of the notebook near the power button. Did you get this problem after using about 3 months? How to fix it?

  3. Hi @chris! Would you recommend the 13,3” or the 12,5” version? Do you think the extra power of the 13,3 is worth it? How does battery life compares on both? I can get the 13,3” for 640€ and the 12,5€ for 440€. Thanks a lot!

    • I’m trying to decide this too. I currently have the teclast x2 as my main work computer but I’m looking into the cube i35…decisions decisions!

  4. Can the Type C be a Thunderbolt?

    • No it’s not configured that way. It’s USB 3.1 type-c display out, charging data all at the same time is possible. But not thunderbolt spec.

  5. Hi Chris!

    I’m looking for a laptop to work with Adobe Suite including premiere. Would you recomend it over the zenbook or similar ultrabooks? Don’t want to spend more than 1000€.

    Thanks! ^_^

    • Yes for under 1000 euros, there really isn’t any other options with a dedicated GPU and this smaller thinner size.

  6. At the moment in a flash sale for 889 Dollar with free shipping at Gearbest. Best wishes,
    Christian

  7. So what alternatives do you recommend (you talk about a lot of competition in the video).
    I like the 12 version (specially the price 🙂 ) but prefere the bigger screen and more processor power (no need for the dedicated GPU).
    So with this much portability and quality just for coding, web and movies. what do you recommend?

    Thanks

    • Dell XPS 13 that’s a good place to start. ASUS, HP & Acer also have similar models. Just look around there are many models around.

  8. What temp are we talking about ? Couse a friend of mine got the Air 13 and he got around 30 C° idle and he pretty much never hear the fan “except for the first windows install with lot of drivers” !

    • I get around 33 degrees idle and no fan when doing nothing. Ask your friend to run a benchmarks or game and you’ll definitely hear the fan. See my review it gets up to around 83 degrees the GPU and 50 degrees to the touch.

  9. Hi Chris,

    Thanks for the review. Would it be possible to test the game “Overwatch” on this laptop? Furthermore, is the second m2 slot only SATA or also PCI-E? Is it an M-key or a B-key slot?
    As the battery life isn’t the greatest, charging from a power bank is quite important. Could you please test if it is possible to charge at lower voltage e.g. 5V, 3A which is the standard of most “quick charging” power bank? If you have, test at 12V or 15V would also be nice as these are voltages you can find on some power banks. At the moment I do not know any power bank with 20V output via USB-C.

    Thanks in advance and best wishes,
    Christian

    • I would also like to know about those power banks. Also if dota 2 plays at all max 1080p

      • Dota 2 runs at max, so does League of legends. Battery pack question above.

    • Hi, I don’t own Overwatch but it would play it looking at the requirements. You’ll just have to lower the settings or run it at 720p instead of 1080p. Power banks don’t work. I tried my latest power bank one with 12v output and still nothing. It needs 20v 3.25A, so until a 20v power bank is released we’re out of luck.

      The second SSD slot is a 2280 M.2 SATA3 slot. So slower sata3 ssd’s will work. You can use smaller sizes too, but you would have to use some electrical tape to hold it in place as the screw is designed for 22mm x 80mm

  10. Lol nice kitty in the picture 🙂 So do you think this is worth the pricetag? Is it better than a Dell XPS 13, I mean this has a dedicated GPU. And the XPS 13 doesn’t.

    • Well the XPS 13 doesn’t have dedicated GPU options so for gaming it’s slow and maybe even video editing. But you can get it with an i7 and Dell just release it with the new 7th Gen chipsets, so CPU wise more power. Depends on your needs. I gets quite hot gaming, I would recommend getting a gaming laptop if you want to game.

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